Latest / Equipped: A Podcast Platform for the Equip Ministry of Cuyahoga Valley Church / LaunchPad: Day 29
Transcript
- 0:00SPEAKER_00: Nehemiah 8, 9 through 10.
- 0:02SPEAKER_00: There are moments when God's word doesn't just encourage us, it exposes us.
- 0:07SPEAKER_00: It shows us something about ourselves we would rather not see.
- 0:10SPEAKER_00: A place where we have wandered, a priority that has gotten out of order, a way we have grown comfortable with something God never intended for us to carry.
- 0:18SPEAKER_00: Sometimes seeing clearly can hurt.
- 0:21SPEAKER_00: This is where we find the people in Nehemiah 8.
- 0:24SPEAKER_00: The wall has been rebuilt.
- 0:26SPEAKER_00: After years of devastation, Jerusalem is standing again.
- 0:29SPEAKER_00: The people gather together and Ezra reads aloud from the book of the law.
- 0:32SPEAKER_00: As they listen, something begins to happen.
- 0:35SPEAKER_00: They realize just how far they have drifted from God, and they weep.
- 0:40SPEAKER_00: I understand that response.
- 0:42SPEAKER_00: There have been times when God has graciously shown me something sinful in my own heart, and my first response has been disappointment.
- 0:49SPEAKER_00: How did I get here?
- 0:51SPEAKER_00: Why didn't I see this sooner?
- 0:53SPEAKER_00: Why am I still struggling with this?
- 0:55SPEAKER_00: Or the cycle we all experience where we start to see a victory over a sin, only to feel defeated and ask ourselves, why can't I get this right?
- 1:04SPEAKER_00: Sometimes conviction can quickly turn into condemnation.
- 1:07SPEAKER_00: We see what is broken and assume God must be standing on the other side of it rejecting us.
- 1:12SPEAKER_00: But that isn't what happens in Nehemiah 8.
- 1:16SPEAKER_00: Nehemiah tells the people, do not grieve because the joy of the Lord is your strength.
- 1:21SPEAKER_00: Notice what he doesn't say.
- 1:23SPEAKER_00: He doesn't tell them that their grief is silly, he doesn't pretend their sin doesn't matter, he doesn't tell them they misunderstood what they heard.
- 1:31SPEAKER_00: Their conviction was appropriate, their tears were real.
- 1:35SPEAKER_00: But their sorrow was not meant to be the end of the story.
- 1:39SPEAKER_00: That distinction matters because it tells us something beautiful about the heart of God.
- 1:44SPEAKER_00: God's word reveals what is wrong, not so that we will hide from him in shame, but so that he can restore what is broken.
- 1:52SPEAKER_00: Conviction draws us towards God.
- 1:54SPEAKER_00: Condemnation convinces us to run from him.
- 1:57SPEAKER_00: And when we look at Jesus, we see this heart of God even more clearly.
- 2:01SPEAKER_00: Jesus never ignored sin or pretended brokenness didn't exist.
- 2:06SPEAKER_00: He told the truth, sometimes uncomfortable truth, but look at the people who found themselves drawn to him, people carrying regret, shame, failure, questions, and messy stories.
- 2:17SPEAKER_00: Again and again, Jesus moved towards them.
- 2:20SPEAKER_00: He restored Peter after Peter denied him.
- 2:23SPEAKER_00: He sat at tables with people everyone else had written off.
- 2:26SPEAKER_00: He met people in the truth of their condition without making that condition the end of their story.
- 2:33SPEAKER_00: Jesus shows us that being fully known by God and deeply loved by God are not competing realities.
- 2:38SPEAKER_00: They exist together.
- 2:40SPEAKER_00: Maybe that is part of what makes the joy of the Lord our strength.
- 2:44SPEAKER_00: Our joy isn't rooted in believing we have gotten everything right.
- 2:48SPEAKER_00: It is rooted in knowing the character of the one who meets us when we haven't.
- 2:54SPEAKER_00: Psalm 30, verse 5 says, Weeping may stay overnight, but there is joy in the morning.
- 3:00SPEAKER_00: Scripture doesn't ask us to skip the night.
- 3:03SPEAKER_00: There are things worth grieving.
- 3:05SPEAKER_00: There are dark, ugly places in our hearts God may want to uncover.
- 3:09SPEAKER_00: There may be priorities he wants to reorder, comforts he asks us to surrender, or places where we realize we have been relying on ourselves instead of him.
- 3:18SPEAKER_00: We don't have to rush past those things.
- 3:21SPEAKER_00: But we also don't have to build a home there.
- 3:24SPEAKER_00: The people in Nehemiah 8 were standing in a city God had helped them rebuild, hearing his word again, gathering as his people again.
- 3:32SPEAKER_00: Even their conviction was evidence of his grace.
- 3:35SPEAKER_00: God had not abandoned them.
- 3:36SPEAKER_00: He was drawing them back to himself.
- 3:39SPEAKER_00: Maybe that is an invitation for us in this season too.
- 3:42SPEAKER_00: As we listen to God and consider what he is doing in our church, perhaps the first question isn't, what do I need to do?
- 3:50SPEAKER_00: Perhaps it is simply, God, what do you want me to see?
- 3:54SPEAKER_00: There will be time for action.
- 3:56SPEAKER_00: There will be opportunities to build, serve, give, go, lead, invite, and obey.
- 4:02SPEAKER_00: But before we rush towards what comes next, we can allow God to search us.
- 4:06SPEAKER_00: We can bring Him whatever we find, the excitement and hesitation, conviction and hope, resistance and desire.
- 4:14SPEAKER_00: And we can trust that the God who reveals what needs restoring is also the God who restores.
- 4:20SPEAKER_00: Our conviction doesn't have to end in shame.
- 4:23SPEAKER_00: In Jesus it can lead us home, and there is joy there.
- 4:27SPEAKER_00: Question to consider What might God be gently revealing in your heart right now?
- 4:32SPEAKER_00: And what would it look like to receive that conviction as an invitation to draw closer to Him rather than a reason to pull away?
- 4:40SPEAKER_00: Prayer prompt.
- 4:41SPEAKER_00: Pray for honest hearts that welcome God's conviction, rest in His grace, and find strength in the joy of being restored to Him.